BP reports hydrotreater fire at Texas City refinery

BP spokesman Scott Dean said Tuesday afternoon that the fire occurred in one section of the residual hydrotreater unit, and company personnel are responding. Mr. Dean said that all workers around the unit were safely evacuated and there have been no reports of injuries.

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By ALISON SIDER and BEN LEFEBVRE

HOUSTON -- BP said a fire that broke out at its Texas
City, Texas, refinery was extinguished Tuesday afternoon after
a burning for little over an hour and a half.

BP spokesman Scott Dean
said that the fire occurred in one section of the residual
hydrotreater unit, and company personnel are responding. Mr.
Dean said that all workers around the unit were safely
evacuated, and there have been no reports of injuries.

The hydrotreater where the fire broke was down as a result,
but the refinery's other units were running
and producing refined products, Mr. Dean said.

The fire began at 1:30 p.m. CDT and was put out at 3:05
p.m., Mr. Dean said.

The plant is one of the largest refineries in the country, with
capacity to process 400,780 bpd of crude oil, according to the
US Energy Information Administration. It was the site of a
deadly 2005 explosion that killed 15 people.

Earlier this month, Marathon Petroleum agreed to buy the refinery along with associated
pipelines and other infrastructure for $598 million, plus an
additional $1.2 billion for oil inventories already at the
site.

Marathon also agreed to pay BP up to $700 million over the next
six years based on future margins and throughput at the
plant.

Investors reacted positively to the news, with Marathon's
share price rising 5% after the announcement was made. Rich
Bedell, the company's senior vice president for refining, said in a conference call
accompanying the purchase announcement that "the plant is a
very different place than it was in 2005."

"BP has gone through a significant refurbishment of the
plant and reconfiguration but also has really worked to instill
a safety culture in that refinery," he told analysts on the
call.

The purchase is expected to close early next year.

Dow Jones Newswires

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Would like to know how the fire started and what may be to possible cause so that the refineries over the world can take a safe loo at their own establishments.Regards,J B Sonar

OLASUNKANMI JIMOH11.02.2012

There is the critical need for more caution in Hydrogen service plants like NHU and CRU to check fire incidences. Continous GEMBA (go and see) approach is important.

Hirak Dutta11.02.2012

Series of accidents in last few months. The accident at Chevron, California and Amuay, Venezuela is due to poor reliability. At Chevron, the corroded HSD line was not replaced whereas at Amuay profuse leak from mechanical seal of olefin pump resulted in catastrophe. Interested to know the root cause of this incident at BP, Texas. I am amused; what about the safety cult.